New video of two oarfish – like the mysterious serpent-like creatures that washed up in Southern California last fall – has emerged, showing two 10-foot-long fish swimming in shallow water along Mexico’s shoreline.

The footage was shot in March by staff members of Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium on a trip in Baja, Mexico, who stumbled upon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the rare silvery and slender fish alive.

“It was incredible seeing these creatures in their full color, swimming alongside us – even if it was for just a short period of time,” Tim Binder said, who shot most of the video that is circulating online. Soon after they were spotted, the oarfish beached themselves on the sandy shoreline of Isla San Francisco, where both died.

“They looked fine before they beached themselves, but within minutes out of the water, the gulls were all over them,” Binder said. “You might see remnants for a few days, but these animals could beach themselves and a few days later no one would know they were there.”

The fish were the same species as the 18-foot-long specimen that was found in Santa Catalina Island’s Toyon Bay last October, and the 14-foot fish found in Oceanside a few days later.

Oarfish can grow up to 36 feet and are the world’s longest bony fish. They usually reside in deep water, around 700 to 3,000 feet below the surface, and their emergence into shallow waters almost certainly portends their doom.

Cal State Fullerton associate professor and marine biologist Misty Paig-Tran said that in the research she’s seen on the fish, once they are out of their usual depths, they don’t survive for long.

“The way their skeletons are, they just aren’t strong enough swimmers to handle getting back down to depth if an ocean current or upwelling occurs and pulls them up to the surface,” Paig-Tran said.

Paig-Tran has been studying the Oceanside-found oarfish closely, as the entire fish was transferred to UCLA for a CT scan so Paig-Tran could make 3D model renderings of the animal to better study its skeletal structure.

As far as determining what led to the oarfish’s demise, Paig-Tran said the team has ruled out any external forces causing the fish’s death, as no bruises or broken bones were found.

“Since there was a male and female found in the area, the guess is that they were mating, there was a shift in ocean currents, and they were brought up to the surface,” Paig-Tran said.

The reason for the fish’s weak swimming skills appears to be in its jelly-like bones. The CT scans are showing a lack of cell structure found in humans and other shallow water fish that could hinder the oarfish’s ability to swim powerfully.

But the bendable bones could be an adaptation to deep sea living, as the fish’s skeleton could be better suited to expand and contract easily in varying depths without the possibility of collapsing on itself.

“We see this with other deep sea fish and sharks, and our research could help answer whether this jelly-like bone structure is an adaptation of deep sea living,” Paig-Tran said.

For the 18-foot oarfish found off Catalina, Jeff Chace of the Catalina Island Marine Institute said the fish is still on ice –waiting to be sent to Oklahoma for the skeleton to be cleaned, constructed and put on display on the island.

Chace had originally planned to bury the fish, let it decompose naturally and then reconfigure the skeleton, but scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles told him otherwise.

“They said this fish is way too complex and delicate to try to put back together on our own,” Chace said. “For starters, it’s got more than 500 fin rays on its spine alone.”

Now their plan is to raise the $13,000 needed to send the frozen fish to Oklahoma, where a skeleton articulation company could clean, reassemble and mount the fish for display.

“We have a fish lab with an 18-foot wall that we would love to display this on,” Chace said.

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